I nominate myself as a User Representative. I've been using Gentoo for two years and it has now spread to five computers I maintain (work, home, two servers, linode leased server), soon to my mom's computer, and I support coworkers who run Gentoo and advocate it in my local Python group. My contact with the Gentoo community is mainly by reading GWN, so my presence on the forums and Bugzilla is mainly limited to things linked from GWN or bugs/problems I encounter. I place a high value on being approachable and clearly communicating. I like Gentoo's straightforward nature, clean configuration system, easy automatic compiles, and I want to do what I can to make sure these things remain and get better and better.

Yesterday, I noticed (better late than never ) that no post about these nominations appeared in the french section. And since this is one of the more active of the forum, and that I think this is really a great idea for the future of Gentoo, I decided to bring the information there.

After a few negociations, it seems that Kopp, one of our GWN translators, would be happy to help with this Gentoo Project. The other french users fully support his nomination, so we (the french mods team) decided to bring his application here, with his approval of course.

although I think it's egotistical to nominate oneself... I'm going to do it anyways because I would like the position. I have been using gentoo since the latter days of 1.4 and have active on bugzilla, the forums, wiki. I have submitted bug reports for fixes to the documentation (that were accepted). I am even considering becoming active on IRC. I have wanted to help gentoo for some time... but since I am not a developer, I cannot submit patches, or otherwise help with development other than submit bugs. I am graduating with an associates in linux / unix systems technology in august, am currently a systems administration intern, and an active member of my local LUG (http://gllug.org/ #gllugmi on freenode.net).

I have felt that for some time there has been a rift of some level between users and developers and hope that if I can get the position that this relationship can be healed. I would also like to help make things easier for new users while still allowing power users like myself to retain our power toys . I feel that a younger somewhat inexperienced person like myself would be beneficial to the group because I am not so far removed from the "n00bs" but neither am I that removed from the "devs" and "sys admins". I feel I may have a more equalized understanding of what all parties want, and if I don't I'm open for suggestions._________________I don't hang out here anymore, try asking on http://unix.stackexchange.com/ if you want my help.

When nominating people, I personally am not looking towards those simply who have contributed to the scene, but rather those I feel would be best suited for this position.

There are some people who have made invaluable contributions to the community, but don't have particular strong communication or diplomatic skills. Others haven't perhaps haven't written a bunch of scripts, but they are intelligent, and express themselves well.

For a user rep, I want someone with a head on their shoulders, someone is diplomatic, someone who is proactive, etc.

I don't spend enough time in the various help and n00b areas, but I'd personally look for those who go out of their way to help people out consistently in those forums, and in the IRC rooms.

Mainly I read the Tips threads, the Unsupported Software threads, and Portage/Programming.

In those threads the following people have jumped out as being knowledgeable, and helpful.

nxsty - He is famous for his wonderful overlays, but what stands out is his ability to answer questions. He is very knowledgeable about GCC and GLIBC. On a source-based distro, knowing your toolchain is very important. He knows a good deal about flags. But the best reason to choose him, is that he isn't a prick quite frankly. If you ask two Gentoo users about a certain CFLAG, one will tell you that you have to try it to be bleeding edge and to push it until it breaks, but they don't offer any real information about the flag. The next person will tell you that you're an idiot if you use anything else other than -O2 pipe. nxsty will encourage safe flags, but he will explain exactly what the flag does, why it might work for you, and why he doesn't use it personally. And while most distros have jumped to GCC 4 a long time ago, for some reason we consider stable to mean GCC 3.3.2. Given how important the toolchain is to Gentoo, I'd like to see both devs and user reps to push towards the future. If you want an older, stable system that has been put through the paces for a great deal of time, then why not simply install a precompiled distro that is standardized and has strong support behind it?

As far as I'm concerned, with Gentoo no two users have the exact same distro. Stable is a myth. It's not just CFLAGs. USE flags make systems quite varied. Add to that, you might have version x of this, and y of that, and z of the next thing, it is impossible to have a standard distro release. Standardization is a huge part of stability, knowing exactly what to expect. Since stability is a bit of a myth with Gentoo, then I don't see why we as a community often cling to older versions for so long, delay adding ebuilds for newer versions, etc. We also chastise people for even asking to try out something new.

I want user reps to be supportive of blazing a new trail, and seeing how it works. They should encourage sharing results, spreading information, pushing for bug reports, etc. They should also be supportive when that trail-blazer breaks packages and needs to fix their box.

Again, I can't think of a single better person for the position than nxsty.

Tiger683 - Along similiar lines. Tiger683 stands out not just because of his contributions, but because of his knowledge and ability to help others.

cheater1034 - Writing and updating guides wins you brownie points. Patching kernels and fixing problems earns you more. Answering questions also works. Releasing tools is nice. Cheater1034 does all of that, and even better, remains civil while others argue around him. Whether you agree with him, or or he agrees with you, I've never seen him resort to petty arguing. Plenty of other people have written install guides. Many of them are critical when people deviate from them, perhaps because they feel their expertise has been invalidated or discounted. cheater1034 makes his suggestions, but in the end he is going to help you out regardless of what CFLAGs you choose, which kernel you choose, or what file system you choose. He is quick to offer suggestions, try new things and again attempt to innovate.

gentree - I am shocked that he hasn't been nominated yet. I'm not superactive on these forums, but routinely I've seen gentree being very helpful.

And while I don't want to be petty, I will say that I agree user reps should be Gentoo users._________________Nihilism makes me smile.

well... maybe I'm using the wrong word... I just feel weird nominating myself. btw I'm not down on anyone else who has. the reason I guess I think it's weird is, they asked for "nominations" not "volunteers", and now I feel like a "politician" saying how great and wonderful I am, and why I'm supposedly more qualified than the next guy. but I whole heartedly agree that people should have a choice, and perhaps it is better to self nominate that way at least no one has to confirm whether or not you actually desire the position._________________I don't hang out here anymore, try asking on http://unix.stackexchange.com/ if you want my help.

If someone that does not use gentoo wins that will be doomsday for the userrel iniciative. And I see some people that does not use Gentoo nominated, this is not right and those people should not be voted for. Thats like Linus Torvalds not using Linux himself._________________Gentoo: Gigabyte: nFORCE 2: nVIDIA GeForce 6600: AMD Athlon XP 3200+
Perspective of a Thinking Human Being

I agree that it's pertinant that the person use at least one CURRENT Gentoo system. However they can of course maintain whatever other OS they want. I wouldn't want them running a gentoo system more than a month or two out of date. being that a lot of very important updates can come in in that amount of time._________________I don't hang out here anymore, try asking on http://unix.stackexchange.com/ if you want my help.

He has been (and still is ) very helpful in the #gentoo.de IRC channel, and has proven a sound knowledge of Linux in general and Gentoo in particular. Also his communication skills are noteworthy, he manages to state a clear opinion on things without being offensive or arrogant.

* The channel is frequented by roughly 200 users, and there was a
public poll announced in the channel.

* CoffeeBuzz for the magnificant work he does on the XGL Overlay (Yes I help out, but he started it and taught me a few things).

* Cheater1034 for providing help when people need it, and fast. He helps out alot, and without him, I am sure quite a few users would be stuck waiting for answers.

* nxsty for creating his extremely helpful glibc overlay. He also helps out alot in regards to GCC and Glibc questions, and has answered a number of my own. Overall he is the idea Gentoo User Rel. He helps out, he explains everything in detail when possible, and has an overall great personality.